Friday, March 30, 2007

Jib Jab
What We Call the News

If you haven't seen it yet... you gotta!


Wednesday, March 21, 2007

FOUND - Missing Boy Scout.

UPDATE - Various Story Links at the Bottom
=================
Unlike, say - Lenslinger - I haven’t been sitting around in an edit bay this week looking at file footage and trying to conjure up ways to get my site meter spinning. That was last week for the former and Yesterday and Today for the latter.

(BIG SMILE)

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I was almost going to skip writing about my treks Monday and Tuesday to cover the search for the missing Boy Scout that quickly became a national news story, but how could I? I was a boy scout when I was his age. I am a Boy Scout Leader (for a Cub Scout Den) now.

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So here goes.

Monday morning I got the word as I walked in the door. Head to the Mountain.

I knew it was coming, I had watched the weekend coverage from the safety of my home Saturday and Sunday. I had a knot in my stomach by Monday morning though, because it was approaching the 48 hour mark since Michael Auberry had disapeared.

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Caron Myers and I joined our colleges at the scene in McGrady, NC at the base of the mountains that form the National Park where the Scout was lost.

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And by the time we arrived Monday morning this story wasn't just a North Carolina story. Crews from Fox, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, etc...etc... had arrived on the scene of the crossroads with a post office, but no stoplight.

Scout Lost

We wrapped an 11 hour Monday high above the chaos in McGrady fronting a 90 second story about a group of scouts that traveled 4 hours to come help in the search almost to be turned away before being allowed to help serve food to the searchers.

We drove back home Monday night knowing that somewhere in that vast forest was a missing Scout.

Scout Lost 2

We came back to the mountain on Tuesday. About halfway into the 2 hour trek we got the call that Michael had been found....ALIVE. We had to make up some time on the road to get there and have any chance at getting the crucial details on camera.

Scout Lost 4

We went through McGrady barely stopping and headed straight to the location where the searchers were staging.

We hoped this would be where the Found Scout would be brought to. It turned out that he wasn't but the crew that found him did come back to this location and we interviewed the dog handler that found Michael and watched as the Scout's Leaders gave the crew a round of applause and a bunch of big hugs.

We went back to our perch high up on the mountain summit and did our part to broadcast the good news.

Links to all the good news....

WGHP
Scout's Mom Speaks
WKRN Nashville
ABC Good Morning America
CNN
AHN
WCNC
Fox News - Rick Levanthal Blog
London Free Press
Yahoo! News
Google
CBS News
CBS News Video
KLTV
USA Today
WHAM
Drudge

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Cat Attackes Reporter
Finally a new post:)

OK so I've been so busy I've neglected to post anything so here you go...

(The setup)

A reporter at Fox 8 (in Cleveland) is holding a cat for a live shot...that's all, but you have to see it if you like it when things go wrong on TV.


Cat Attacks Cute Reporter - Click Here for more great videos and pictures!

Thursday, March 01, 2007

High Rock Lake
View from the TOP!

When the NC Forest Service put a Fire Alert in place last week because of high winds and dry conditions I set out with reporter Jeff Varner to find a visual way to tell the story.

Firetower

And just in case there was no actual fire to put in our story, we figured it would be smart to actually have some other kind of hook in our story to make it work.

Firetower (6)

So with the permission of Distric Forester Lloyd Brown, Jeff and I headed to the old firetower at the lower end of High Rock Lake(at the point of the arrow).

High Rock Map

We were forwarned that the climb up wouldn't be easy without a ladder because the lowest flight of the stairs heading up had been removed from this tower that is now only used as a communications platform.

Firetower (12)

I won't go into too many details about the climb other than to say it involved a ladder that was too short, a little shimmying and using an extension cord to haul up my camera that first 20 feet.

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After gathering my equipment on the first level I climbed 5 more sections of stairs to my vantage point (2 sections above where I am in the picture below) where I gathered some video for our news story and these pictures to prove it.

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I don't usually say I'm afraid of heights, but there's something a little unnerving about climbling a 50plus year old rusty tower on a windy day. The wind really picked up above the height the treetops.

Firetower (2)

But it was worth it for the view looking out over High Rock Lake. I could easily see for 50 miles or more. In the picture below you can even see Pilot Mountain that was 51 miles to the North (and slightly west) of the firetower.

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In the map below I have pointed out where I was(at the bottom) and where I was looking(at the top).

Pilot Mountain Map 2

As it turned out there were no fires this day but the climb made our story worth watching and frankly, worth doing.


Firetower (4)

Now, when summer gets here I'll be on the lake!